~ God is up to something

Take Care of You

I often get caught up in taking care of other people or doing my work or doing schoolwork that I forget to take care of myself. I honestly love to do things for other people and be there for them. I love to help others out. I take pride in my work and try to do everything to the best of my ability. However, sometimes I do it to the point where I stop taking care of myself. I stop making sure that I am happy.

And I can’t take care of anyone else, if I don’t take care of myself.

Taking care of yourself comes in all sorts of ways and is honestly probably a little bit different for everyone, depending on what you need in order to relax and recharge. But you have to be aware of yourself and when you get to the point of being burnt out. You have to take a step back and look at what got you there and if there is anything that you need to change.

Last week was crazy for me. Beyond crazy. Work was crazy and I was helping someone out who was gone, so it basically doubled my work. I started grad school up again. I had my mentorship meeting. It was one thing after the other. And honestly I wanted to help everyone out so that I didn’t have to worry about me and the things that I needed to do. Personally, I know it may sound crazy but I hate to worry about me.

I know that I need to go to the dentist. I don’t want to. I know I need to go to the doctor but I delayed making an appointment. I know that I need to do laundry but there’s other more fun things to do. I don’t really want to do my homework but I want this degree. I even pushed off on this blog, which has become part of taking care of me. I made it so I was never home. I made it so there was no down time and I felt like I was running a hundred miles a minute.

I told myself that if I could just make it to Thursday, I would be okay. Clearly, I have made it through last week but it made me realize that I need to take care of me. Today really made me realize that I needed to take care of me.

I went home early today because my blood sugar was teetering between almost 400 and over 500 all day. Now, I fully admit that it’s my fault. I didn’t check my sugar when I should have. I forgot to give myself insulin a few times recently. But I was so focused on taking care of everyone else, the work, the people I was with, the church event, my friends, etc that I blew off taking care of myself.

For me, I really don’t have a choice but to take care of myself physically. I will die if I don’t give myself insulin. This made me see that. This made me see who I want to be by my side through this. This made me want to take care of myself so that I can take care of them. This made me want to ask them for help. This made me want them to help me. These are huge things for me.

It all made me realize too that I need to take care of myself mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. I went out of town with someone close to me and it was the best weekend that I have had in a long time. We both got to escape life for a little, enjoy each other’s company, and destress. We got to take care of ourselves briefly. We are both people who like to care for everyone else and get ourselves exhausted doing so.

If you are like that, take time to take care of yourself. Do something for you. It’s okay to take care of yourself. Take a day off, do something you like, take a nap, read a book, go somewhere, do what you need to do to take care of yourself, for a moment. Then go back to trying to take care of everyone else.